1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel metal complex-protein composite and a novel oxidation catalyst.
This patent application claims foreign priority benefit of the filing dates under 35 U.S.C. 119 of Japan application Japan 2003-369006 filed Oct. 29, 2003.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The inventor of the present invention has proposed metal complex-protein composites of salophen complexes inserted in a cavity of apomyoglobin (apo-Mb) by non-covalent bonding. Here apomyoglobin is obtained by liberating a heme from an oxygen storage protein, myoglobin (Mb). The inventor synthesized, for example, a metal complex-protein composite including a metal complex of manganese with N,N′-bis(salicylidene)-1,2-phenylenediamine kept in the cavity of apomyoglobin, and reported that such composites were useful for asymmetric oxidation reaction of thioanisole (the Proceedings of the 16th Biofunctional Symposium, ‘1S1-11 Construction of Artificial Enzyme by Insertion of Metal Complex into Apomyoglobin Cavity’ (published in September 2001).
The prior art composites of the salophen complexes, however, have still insufficient oxidation reactivity and enantioselectivity. Development of higher-active composites has thus been highly demanded.